Sleep -going with the flow?

[Vmama]

my 7wk DS had been sleping from 8-12/1 then waking every 3 hrs for a feed now he sleeping 8-11ish and waking every 2 hrs for a feed. Do we just have to go with what he's doing or are there things we should do to help him -and us -sleep longer?

i try to feed him more often in the evening anyway to tank him up and he has EBM bottle for his 1am feed -am giving him about 4oz -is this enough?

[dcb]

probably a growth spurt and i think par for the course at the moment with a bf baby. you could try more in the ebm feed - although i used to hate to waste any - it's like gold. does dp give this or do you? great if someone else can otherwise i wouldn't bother with the inconvenience. mind you i didn't like the whole expressing thing. i know it doesn't seem like it now but things will get much easier. you are doing really well by the sounds of it.

[shish]

7 weeks is so young. You really do have to just go with the flow. His 'routine' will change so frequently over the first few months. I agree with dcb - You seem to be doing so well. You will need to try and catch up on sleep during the day when he sleeps. Keep at it. It does get better

[Indith]

Sounds like he is doing very well on the sleep front! I know popular myth would have us believe they start to sleep through at 6 weeks but I think its a lie to persuade us that having babies is nice and happy and easy! Go with it. If you feel like he is waking from habit or just for a snack if not rally hungry you can always try to soothe him back to sleep without a feed, you'll probably have to get up again an hour later but it may help to get him in the habit of doing 3 hours again. But he is a baby, its his job to move th goal posts just as you think a routine is settled, keeps you on your toes!

[Vmama]

another query re sleep for anyone with baby 3 months or younger- where does everyone put their baby to sleep and do you stick to the same bedtime every night?

my 8 wk old ds falls asleep in his bouncing chair around 8pm and sleeps there til we take him up to bed around 10.30 when we do a dreamfeed and put him into an amby baby hammock next to the bed.

do you think this is ok and at what point do you think we should be putting him to bed upstairs and leavibg him? at the moment we like him to be near us but he's going to be too big for his chair soon and maybe we need to get him in a routine and used to sleeping without us?

[MegBusset]

Vmama - until a couple of weeks ago, we were doing very similar thing with DS (now 7 weeks) - he would doze on me or DH all evening til we went to bed (around 11-12), when we'd change and feed him then put him in his crib.

One evening, around 9.30, when he was due a feed and looking suitably dozy, we decided to see if he'd go down in his crib. So we took him into the bedroom and went through our short bedtime routine (dim lights, change into sleepsuit, feed on bed, pop into crib) and he went for it straight away.

Since then we have moved his bedtime slightly earlier as he gets tired sooner now he's more awake during the day. Now he goes to bed sometime between 7.30 and 8.30 depending on how tired he is (which depends how well he's napped during the day). If he doesn't settle straight away then I go back in, offer a bit more boob, back in crib and out of the room again. (So far this has never taken more than 45 mins or so to get through, and usually less - tonight it was 10 mins.)

Sounds like you could try this with your LO - look for his tired signs before he'd normally drop off at 8pm, then take him to room with lights dimmed, change, feed and put in hammock.

Having said all that... FSIDS' current advice is to have baby sleeping in the same room as you at all times. So if you are happy with your situation, there's no reason to change it. We only did it 'cause DS would only sleep on us in our front room usually, which was a pita and meant he got disturbed every time we moved - and we had to take turns eating dinner! We have got a video monitor hooked up to his crib so we can keep a super close eye on him.

Sorry for uber-long post but hth!

[Vmama]

thanks Meg tht sounds like a plan tho i think we'll carry on as we are for a bit -we like his company!! i hate the idea of him waking up alone at the moment but he's pretty good at falling asleep by himself in his chair except some nights when he needs rocking/walking to sleep.

anyone else got any thoughts? just wondered what people are doing as you never know if you're doing the wrong thing. mil keeps telling us off for letting him sleep in his chair but he's happy there fr now.